Self Bank, the Spanish online banking subsidiary of French financial group Boursorama, is using a combination of video-conferencing, biometrics and electronic signatures, to cut registration times for new customers joining the bank.

The Spanish direct bank says the new digital registration process allows anyone to complete all of the steps necessary to open and use a fully operative account in just a few minutes.

The bank has become the first in Spain to use video-conferencing as a remote sign-up mechansism for customer onboarding since the process was certified by financial watchdog Sepblac in February.

Self Bank worked with Electronic Identification and everis, to build the system, which captures essential documents on camera and applies facial recongition to authenticate user identities. Once enrolled, customers can sign up for any of the bank’s products immediately using electronic signatures.

Alberto Navarro, Self Bank CEO, says: “To Self Bank, the customer registration process is something critical, because it is the first experience people have when they begin their relationship with the bank. As soon as the regulation made it possible to improve this process, we made a decisive commitment to simplify it and redesign it so as to create an excellent experience for our new customers.”